Chinese New Year show sets off political fireworks

March 03, 2007|By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Tribune staff reporter.

For most English-speaking Chicagoans--indeed, for many of the show's sponsors--the colorful Chinese New Year celebration planned for the Auditorium Theatre Saturday sounded innocent enough, a rich vista of traditional culture, dance and music.

But in recent weeks, as Chinese government officials and program organizers have hurled charges of harassment at one another, it has become clear that the Chinese New Year Spectacular also offers a window into a bitter political struggle that stretches from here to Beijing.

Chinese government officials and independent scholars agree that the leadership behind the Spectacular, along with some of the themes depicted in other versions of the show, is linked to the Falun Gong, the controversial movement that has spiritual and political elements.

In fact, the Shanghai municipal government and a local group tried to stage a competing show in Chicago, though eventually that was canceled.

Organizers of the Spectacular, meanwhile, have blamed Beijing for waves of harassing phone calls that they say jammed ticket hot lines.

Some of the local institutions that lined up to support the Spectacular, including the Chicago Transit Authority and Chicago Public Radio, said they were caught off guard, unaware of any controversy until they got calls from the Chinese Consulate asking them to distance themselves from the show.

"We think it is an act by the Falun Gong cult," said Zhiyuan Ji, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. "We do not want the American public or U.S. officials to show their support to this evil cult."

China continues to devote considerable time and energy to combating the Falun Gong, which it banned in 1999. The Chinese New Year Spectacular, has become the latest standoff.

As the show has toured North America, organizers in Houston, Dallas and New York also reported disruptive phone calls.

In Canada, the Chinese Embassy issued a statement urging government officials not to participate after Prime Minister Stephen Harper wrote a greeting letter published in the show's program. Pressure from Beijing forced the show to close in South Korea.

"Interference from Chinese authorities is not new to us," said Carrie Hung of the New York-based New Tang Dynasty Television, producer of the Spectacular. "The stronger we become, the more successful [the Spectacular] becomes, the more they interfere."

From an audience of 10,000 four years ago to 200,000 this year, the New Year Spectacular is quickly becoming the main source of financing for the media network, Hung said. New Tang and the Epoch Times newspaper, a co-host of the Spectacular, strongly support the Falun Gong but deny any formal connections to the movement.

But fliers for the show list some performers, including members of the Tianyin Orchestra, as being persecuted in China for practicing Falun Gong. Shows in New York and Canada reportedly featured a dance that depicts a Falun Gong member who is jailed and killed by Chinese police, who are later punished by a supernatural being.

"The New Tang Dynasty Television is a Falun Gong thing," said David Ownby, director of the Center of East Asian Studies at the University of Montreal, who is writing a book on the movement. "And the New Year Spectacular that they put together really irritates the Chinese government."

Guy Alitto, professor of history and East Asian languages at the University of Chicago, who has appeared on New Tang Dynasty TV, said network executives are Falun Gong members.

Z.J. Tong, president of the Chicago Chinese Cultural Institute, said the show should be named Falun Gong Lunar New Year celebration.

"I highly recommend the sponsors and supporters of the show to check the record of Falun Gong before their commitment so that their kindness is not taken advantage of," he said.

Local sponsors include NBC5 TV, which supported two Chinese New Year's celebrations this year, and the Chicago Sun-Times, which did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the Illinois Arts Council said the Spectacular got $1,000 based on an application with no mention of Falun Gong.

Daniel Ash, Chicago Public Radio spokesman, said that by the time the Chinese Consulate called to alert the station to its objections, it was too late. The station already agreed to publicize the event online and on the air. "A lesson learned from this is spend more time to discern who the groups are," Ash said.

Scholars say China chafes at the Spectacular's attempts to bill itself as the true reflection of traditional Chinese values.

"It irritates the Chinese government and the Chinese people as well," Ownby said.

In Chinatown, some community members said that at times they feel under siege from Falun Gong practitioners, who conduct sit-down protests in Chinatown Square or push to distribute their newspapers and fliers.

"I agree that there is still a lot for China to improve," said Tong, but Falun Gong's claim that the Chinese government is harvesting organs from jailed practitioners "is just not true."